This is how I think of Ed Dobson most often: laughing. I loved it when Ed cracked up. He had a delightful, goofy laugh, a hysterical intake of breath, in contrast to the serious attitude he adopted when it came … Continue reading →

Andrea and I put up the tree Sunday night. The humble Fraser fir had sat naked for a day in my living room, after I’d carted it from the tree farmer’s lot off Lake Michigan Drive. We draped it with … Continue reading →

A few days after seeing the fleeting supergroup Blind Faith perform in 1969, I awoke in the middle of the night with a song banging through my head. It was “Had to Cry Today,” the opening track of both the … Continue reading →

There’s no telling when or why a song gets stuck in my head. One especially troubling instance happened in the summer of 1976, when I was a young man cavorting in England. Seemingly out of nowhere appeared a brief instrumental … Continue reading →

Music lovers of all ages have been blessed to experience the era of the Beatles in real time. It’s sort of like, “Mozart? Oh yeah, I saw him when he was first playing gigs in Salzburg. Dude was incredible!” I … Continue reading →

Besides being a wonderful game in itself, baseball has a way of connecting people across time, societal groups and generations. I recently presented a program about baseball’s beauty and community-creating qualities at the Catholic Information Center of the Grand Rapids … Continue reading →

I was sitting on the porch of our cottage outside of Beulah, reading a book about the saints, when up came a volunteer friend: a chocolate-colored lab, friendly as you please. He clicked across the porch, nuzzled up to me … Continue reading →